Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/240

 If political independence is won and exercised with economic blindness, the paradoxical result will be less personal liberty. It is specific considerations such as these that emphasize the necessity for incontrovertible and non-political bases for our economic formulæ.

Leaving special cases and looking to generalities, the insuperable difficulty in the way of making a homogeneous whole of two political entities is lack of economic understanding. If unity is imposed by the larger entity, all the consequences of economic confusion are blamed on imperialism, even though coercion is inherent in the smaller entity that cries “oppression.” It is not human nature to blame one’s self first. There is no talk of oppression or coercion if two unequal power plants are linked for the sake of economy. If there are factors of friction in either, however, there is competent scrutiny demanded.

Proceeding now to the question of a maximum development of human effort, we are brought face to face with the unpleasant problem of politics. Unfortunately for the economist, the politician has been tinkering with the system so long that gauges, barriers, traps and leaks are to be found everywhere, and these politically interposed factors of loss and friction comprise a formidable list. It is here that we are confronted with the problem of taxation—which is properly the cost of maintaining free flow—and of valid currency—one of the most vital economic conditions of free flow. These are not isolated and disconnected administrative and fiscal problems, as the orthodox have led us to believe. If our aim is to ensure a maximum expression of effort, all taxation that presents any check or obstacle to orderly human activity must be eliminated. The bureaucrat will immediately rise to the word activity as a trout to a fly and ask whether it is wise or unwise activity. It does not really matter. The whole stream will flow forward if there is no interference, even though there are eddies in the shallows. The constant interposing of baffles with which reformers concern themselves, will, in the end, only make new shallows which must be perpetually dredged. Now, if funds are needed to provide order where shall we seek them?